Log in

JWG

Herds of zebras

June 11th, 2008

Current Mood:

africa2008

On the Serengeti we saw huge herds of zebra. This was migration time and we did run into a bunch that were on the way northwest. They often hang around with wildebeests whether migrating or not. Apparently zebras have great eyesight and poor sense of smell whereas wildebeests have a great sense of smell and poor eyesight so they make a good team especially to avoid lions. Apparently young zebras learn to recognize their mothers by the pattern of stripes. If you look closely you can see minor variations. This method could be thought of as prior art for Bar Code readers.

We did encounter a set of zebras drinking. They were quite skittish so suddenly they'd bolt out of the water and then rush back in again.

Sometimes they hang around in clumps, occasionally you'd see a pair each of which was resting its head on the other one.

But they are truly beautiful creatures when they're wearing their stripes. There were so many of them that by the end fo the second day the presence of zebras didn't even rate commenting on, but I was always glad to see them.